art habit Archives - Dora Sislian Themelis Art

The Finish Line, or Not

I spent the weekend in reflection. January 31 was my first post to the 100 Paintings Challenge. A year ago I found out I could paint finished work in twenty minutes and I would post my paintings to the Twenty Minute Challenge. That’s where I found out about 100 Paintings.

Well, I will not make it to the required 100 pieces of art in this year. There is always next year to try my best. What else can I say? As of today I painted 56 watercolor paintings, with a few pen and ink drawings thrown in that mix to keep at it.

In my opinion, I accomplished plenty. As I said in another post, I am good for another go. See what happens this time.

Yesterday I went into the studio to survey my space. What is it that keeps me from doing better work there than at the dining room table? For one thing, the dining room table is lower than my drawing board allowing me to stand while I paint. I can move around, look at my work from a distance, keep some energy going. The drawing board is high and I can’t get away from it. Need to change it.

The dining room table has great north facing light, the studio is in the basement. Can’t do much about that, but make sure I have good light in the studio.

Most paintings took twenty minutes or so to complete. The larger works took a couple of days of work, and then I was a slacker some days. And I was working in the dining room because I needed to be near my granddaughter while she napped. A year later she’s not napping much, so there goes that.

Then I was also battling with Mr. Resistance. It’s been easier to beat the demon after all the work I’ve been doing since the Artist’s Way, Alyson Stanfield’s book and workshops, and my own lazy brain.

So I will forgive myself for not painting the requisite 100 works. It’s okay. I’m not looking to excuse myself because I did agree to the challenge, just didn’t pass the finish line on time.

We are all a work in progress. The Blast Off class I am taking online with Alyson is a huge help and I am working on my curriculum for the year ahead.

Painting will be regularly scheduled on the calendar of to-do list items at #1.
Reading artists bios, looking into documentaries of artists and museum visits is on the item list.

I’m already reading this great biography of Vincent van Gogh and it’s been very interesting to learn how he came to paint.

And there’s been knitting. Knitting socks at that. While I knit I daydream as I watch the stitches or color fly by on my needles. As I watch my brain is planning the next painting.

Not a bad start to another year of paintings. Wish me luck, again!

Back to Twyla

There hasn’t been much time for reading lately. Painting during the day when I can, and knitting at night takes up my time. I really enjoy reading a good book, too. (And a “real” book at that!)

The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp is a quick read though, and I’d prefer to take my time with it to savor her thoughts of making one’s art a habit. I have read ahead almost to the end, but I haven’t taken notes. When I read The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, I took plenty of notes, did the exercises and tried to be a good student. This time around I’m not being quite as good. I’m just reading.

However, I am taking away some very helpful points and ideas. There are things I already know about myself that Tharp discusses in her book, one idea is to build up a tolerance for solitude. Well, I’ve got that one down well. I know I need it and can do it very well, thanks.

I can imagine that there are some people to whom quietness and solitude could not be a good thing. Not for a long stretch anyway.

Tharp says: “Some people are autophobic. They’re afraid to be alone. The thought of going into a room to work all by themselves pains them in a way that is, at first, paralyzing within the room, and then keeps them from entering the room altogether. It’s not the solitude that slays a creative person. It’s all that solitude without a purpose. You’re alone, you’re suffering, and you don’t have a good reason for putting yourself through that misery…you need a goal.”

It’s impossible to me to be miserable in a room all by myself. No suffering here. I’m a person who enjoys my own company. I have many things around me that keep me busy and give me inspiration. My goal is the solitude itself within which I can then create.

Some people, for the life of them, cannot be alone for any stretch of time. There is no goal. They are lonely and sick without interaction with other individuals.

“Alone is a fact, a condition where no one else is around. Lonely is how you feel about that.”

The Artist’s Way or No Way

I’m well into the 12 week course of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Some artists I’ve discussed this book with swear by it and others don’t, suggesting other avenues to rehabilitate the “inner artist”. All I can say is that I think it’s working for me.

Cameron instructs the artist to journal each and every morning for three pages in long hand. Remember using a pen and paper, anyone? Now that every thing is on computer, going back to writing long hand in a book is like a new discovery. She insists these “Morning Pages”, as she calls them, be written without fail and is crucial to the artist’s recovery. I’ve been journaling for a few months before I found this course, so to continue for three pages, well I can do that!

Cameron asks to pay attention to a slight shift in attitude by one and a half pages and I think she’s right. By then I’ve rehashed all the stuff of my day floating around in my brain and really get to the heart of creative thought. As another favorite book, The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace Wattles suggests, thought becomes the thing thought of. The tasks for each week eventually lead the artist to their art.

At least it’s working for me. Today is going to be a day of art, after the errands, farmer’s market, laundry, bed making, vacuuming….